Long-term treatment outcomes for Graves disease

Three therapies exist for Graves disease (also known as Graves hyperthyroidism): antithyroid drug therapy (ATD), radioactive iodine (I 131 therapy) to damage the thyroid or surgery to remove all or part of the thyroid.The efficacy of each of these treatments is well known; however, little is known about the long-term outcomes of each treatment modality.A new study in Thyroid presents long-term (6-10 years) outcome data for the different treatments of Graves disease.The researchers recruited a cohort of 2,430 patients with newly diagnosed Graves disease from 13 endocrine clinics in Sweden in 2003-2005.Patients were followed up for 8 ± 0.9 years (mean ± s.d.) after diagnosis.By reviewing the medical records of each patient and by conducting questionnaires, information was obtained on the treatment modality, patient demographic, lifestyle factors, rate of disease remission, quality of life and the presence of comorbidities.